win me lost cd again

Hi all, I've got this re-occuring problem with win me...almost every time I reboot this comp, it looses the ide cd drives, I guess it is a good thing that the hdd is on the raid controler..otherwise it probably wouldn't boot at all.
I went to intel and donloaded the inf update, but winme won't install it, because win me is supposed to support the chipset(i440bx), and the like.
So far, the only thing I have been able to do is install the inf drivers that came with the mobo. The person that owns this comp will have to wait till after the income tax check comes b4 she can upgrade to winXP.
The system is an Abit BE6-II v2, generic ram, maxtor 10g hdd,sb live 24bit,and a crappy video card (SIS 32mb sdram).
The cd drives are jumpered correctly, and recoknised in the p.o.s.t.
I even created a restore point, right after getting everything going, and restored to that point, and the problem still exists.
Until she can afford to upgrade, I need to keep this POS running, but I'm getting more frustrated every day, having to come back to fix something I fixed already.
Any and all help would be greatfully apreciated and thanks in advance for your replies
Rod

I'm not sure it's a windows issue, it might be hardware. Does the problem persist if you boot with a livecd of linux? I'm thinking some hardware connection is loose or some hardware doesn't get along well with some other hardware for weird idiosyncratic reasons.

does it show an exclamation mark for the primary and secondary IDE drivers? if so, do a search for "NoIDE" in the registry and delete the entries.

Windows ME (Mellienium Edition)?

Oh god. FORMAT AND REINSTALL SOME THING THAT DOES NOT SUCK MORE THAN THE HOOVER DAMN>!

I was thinking the same thing. Do you have a spare OS disk sitting around somewhere?

Thks, I forgot 'bout the "noide" thang....I'll look right now.Thks again

Man, this is so weird...drive c: is using ms-dos compatability mode, but there is no "noide" value in the registry. Does ME handle compatability mode differently?
And What is "static VXD"?.I would think it would be dynamic. but hey, it's ME were talking about.
Any and all responses would be apreciated.
Rod

Is the whole system running in compatability mode? If so, I'd tackle that problem first.

And if you have a copy of Win98 you could put on her system for the time being, I think that would be a good idea. I'm pretty sure you can transfer the licence.

Win 98 is better than Win ME anyways...

Win ME was the worst OS M$ ever produced. I had it for a while. That was a train wreck of a product.

Thks All,
I hope XP won't be the headache that win98 and me was.
I just fdisked my main rig and reinstalled w98se and installed power dvd xp and nero 6 oem, and went to go on the net, and IE crashed, so I had to upgrade to me (I've had it lying around for yrs) just so I could get to my posts here..lately i have had nothing but trouble with any M$ product.
Seing as I am no longer running 98se on this machine, it will be legal to put it on my cousins comp that has me on it.
Thks again fer the replies.
Take care and be well
Mad Clocker